Filer Adds Zing To School Board Race

Generally A Lower Profile Competition In A City Where Politics Is A Blood Sport, Eight Candidates Are Vying For Four Seats.

October 27, 1997|By STACY WONG; Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Close watchers of city politics know that mayoral candidate Domenique Thornton was not the only local Democrat to wage a campaign with vengeance this year.

Daniel J. Filer, a perennial thorn in the school administration's side, has been open in his reason for running for the school board: He is not pleased with how the district has treated his special-needs son, and he is not going to let anyone forget it, including the current school board.

``I think there is a need for new leadership,'' he said at the recent candidate forum sponsored by the Middletown Schools Association.

In a city where politics is a blood sport, not even the school board campaign escapes acrimony, it seems. Generally, though, the school board race tends to be a lower profile competition.

Candidates are usually scrutinized most closely by city parents, and they tend to assess candidates not so much as politicians, but as securers of funding for their children's education.

This year's race features eight candidates vying for four seats. Of the eight, Republican Barbara Weiss is the veteran, having served 16 years on the board.

The three Democratic incumbents served one term or less. Edward McMillan, a retired businessman and past schools superintendent, is the only full-term incumbent running again.

Frederick Chappelle, a training consultant who has filled a vacancy for three years, is now the budget committee chairman and the main champion of a new initiative to get more parents involved with the schools.

Rounding out the trio is Wesleyan classics professor Elizabeth Bobrick, who has served on the board since January, when former longtime board member Elizabeth Morgan stepped down.

Besides Filer, who had petitioned to get his name on the ballot, the challengers in this year's race are all Republicans.

Salvatore Russo is perhaps the most familiar to voters, having lost a bid for state representative last year. He also is the brother of Republican mayoral candidate Evelyn G. Russo.

Dee White, a member of the county's NAACP chapter, is an active member of one of the parent associations and is the only African American to run besides Chappelle.

James Gerber, a manufacturing supervisor, stepped in to run for the board after Brian Freitel got a new job and withdrew from the race.

Though never mentioned outright, a balance is generally considered desirable for the school board on a number of fronts. Ideally, the board will have a mix of men and women of different racial and political backgrounds, who live in various parts of the city and have children in a range of grade levels.

But the reality is that the winners are the four top vote-getters, as long as no party gets more than six seats on the board.

Because of the rules, and the current composition of the board, only three of the four Democrats can be elected to office, but all four of the Republicans can be elected.

Democratic candidates are generally favored in Middletown because Democratic voters soundly outnumber those in other parties, as well as the unaffiliated voters.

According to the Oct. 1 voter figures, the city has 11,250 Democrats, 8,250 unaffiliated voters and 4,040 Republicans.

Of course, incumbency is also a plus, even in a school board race, and none of the four incumbents have done anything that would seriously disqualify them in the eyes of city voters.

In fact, Weiss is probably the district's best community antenna, keeping a full roster of civic engagements that has her constantly in the public eye. She is running again even though her youngest son graduated from Middletown High School last year.